Sharif University of Technology. Photo: wiki commons.

Seyed Mojtaba Atarodi, a professor at Tehran’s Sharif University of Technology is being held in California accused of violating U.S. export laws.

Atarodi was in court for his bond hearing on Thursday, in San Francisco, and according to his family he will be released.

The Associated Press first reported on this story.

An expert in microchip technology, Atarodi purchased “high-tech lab equipment” and was taken in by U.S. authorities in early December.

The AP quotes a Sharif University official, saying, “The fact of the matter is that he was just a professor, and he was trying to buy some equipment for his lab, and the equipment was very, very simple, ridiculously simple stuff that anybody can buy.”